In July, the New York Times asked readers to describe what it’s like to be middle class in America. From more than 500 responses, the Times highlighted stories from seven families around the country with annual incomes that ranged from $75,000 to $400,000.

The story prompted important conversations about how we define “middle class” in America. Should it be based on income? Wealth? How about the share of homeownership or stable employment? Or maybe the middle class is harder to define, instead more broadly implying a sense of stability and security?

Any definition of the middle class will have shortcomings. In 2017, the median household income across the country was $61,372. Even that number paints an incomplete picture—median household incomes range nationwide from $43,441 in Mississippi to $83,382 in Washington, DC.

The Pew Research Center defines the middle class as people whose annual household income is two-thirds to double the national median income, adjusted for household size. The late Alan Krueger argued that the middle class represents a band of income from 50 to 150 percent around the median.

Read the full article about the middle class by Jonathan Schwabish at Urban Institute.